Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I had prepared some notes and I will discuss them momentarily, but I must take exception to some of comments made by Deputy Tóibín. There appears to be a misconception that Ireland and the EU are somehow separate. Ireland is the EU. We are discussing our European Council meeting next week. We are talking about an action taken in the Irish Government's name by the European Union, of which Ireland is an equal member. The Irish Government has played a proactive role throughout the Brexit process. Talk of cutting off diplomatic ties with the UK feeds into the extreme narrative of the very people Deputy Tóibín castigated on the Conservative Party's backbenches. We are better than that, quite frankly. We want a resolution of this. Regardless of what happens on 1 January next, the UK will still be our nearest neighbour. It will still be a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement which the Deputy mentioned. We must act as the mature adult in the room and not separate the Irish effort from the collective European Union effort. Michel Barnier is as much our negotiator as he is the European Commission's, Belgium's, Bulgaria's or any other member state's negotiator. We have to state that and be very careful in our language.

We are having statements before the European Council meeting. We have not really had an opportunity to have post-European Council meeting statements, although the Minister of State attended for the first time last week. It was great to see both him and the Taoiseach able to attend in person. It is very important. The issue I wish to raise regarding the previous Council meeting is that while I welcome the sanctions imposed by the European Union on the regime in Belarus, and I realise how difficult it was to get the agreement of all 27 member states on that, I am disappointed that the President of Belarus is not on the list, unlike in the actions taken by the UK, the US and other countries. We must continue to look forward to that. The sanctions against the Belarusian regime must include President Lukashenko and every key actor in his government. The events we see in the streets of Minsk and across Belarus are galling, with people being taken from their families in the dead of night, beatings, intimidation and everything else.

Turning to the forthcoming European Council meeting, I expect the Council to ratify Mairead McGuinness as the new European Commissioner. She came through the European Parliament's process today with a massive result. It is a great testament to her 16 years as an MEP and the high regard in which she is held across the EU. With regard to climate change, a challenge has been put down by the European Parliament to the European Council and each member state to raise their ambition. Crucially, however, as regards Africa and the EU's co-ordinated approach to Africa, I believe this is something in which Ireland must play a more proactive role. We must embrace the new embassies going to Ghana and across the continent. Ireland has a proud history in Africa, be it through missionary work, its NGOs and, most importantly, its peacekeepers. It behoves Ireland, as a small country that knows what colonialism and its legacy are, to play a proactive role in the European Union. It is something on which we can lead.

The Joint Committee on European Union Affairs had a very worthwhile meeting this morning. We discussed the update on Brexit negotiations with the Minister, Deputy Coveney. It was a lengthy meeting and we covered a number of key areas. I will not repeat them, but I wish to refer to the issues that pertain to next week's European Council meeting. We must be wary of, and not feed into, the ongoing theatrics in London and the internal discussions within certain political parties or parliamentary chambers. Once again, there is talk of artificial deadlines coming from British Government sources today. That is inappropriate and we should not engage with, or feed into, it. Of course, along with our European colleagues, we are aghast at the conditions contained in the Internal Market Bill and how they run a cart and horses through the withdrawal agreement and the Northern Ireland protocol, which is so vital not just to this island but also to the European Union and what it stands for when it comes to the rule of law, upholding peace treaties and being the most successful peace process in the world, as the European project is.

More worrying, we look to what is coming down the track in the Finance Bill in the United Kingdom. If measures that have been discussed are put into that Bill, at that stage we will know that the British Government simply is not serious about a deal. However, it should never be the European Union which forces that. The European Union has the absolute responsibility to debate to the last second and to ensure that we can try as much as possible to secure a future relationship between the EU and the UK. That is why we look at the areas that provide the greatest difficulty and what the European response should be. The European position and the mandate given to Michel Barnier by the Council and validated by the European Parliament is very important when it comes to the level playing field and making sure that the standards of the Single Market will always be maintained through any agreement with a third party. That is what the UK is becoming. It is a special third party, the only one that has ever left the EU, and is very close to the Union both geographically and economically. However, in this member state we are aware of the importance of the level playing field for maintaining standards, be it in agrifood production or our approach to the environment. Equally, there is the importance of state aid in that level playing field in the post-pandemic era, and ensuring that state aid is agreed and cannot be used to undermine the Single Market and its values.

Moving parallel with the ongoing negotiations between Lord Frost and Michel Barnier, there is the joint implementation committee on the protocol. I was heartened by the comments of European Commissioner Sefcovic yesterday in the European Parliament in which he made it clear that the joint implementation committee is not a negotiation. The committee is about the implementation of the protocol. It has been agreed. The responsibilities of both the British Government and the European Union, and therefore the Irish Government, are quite clear in black and white. We have seen great progress in places such as Dublin Port as we prepare for what will happen in the future, but that must be replicated in places such as Belfast Harbour, Belfast International Airport, Derry airport and Warrenpoint.

The final point I wish to make is one we should discuss more. It is not necessarily the negotiation between the UK and the EU, but the internal negotiation within the European Union. I have been speaking to colleagues from other member states, either from our European People's Party, EPP, political family or contacts I have built up, and it is quite clear that the mood and opinion on Brexit are dimming ever so slightly among other member states. It impacts on us and is important to us, but when speaking to colleagues the issue is making sure that we can keep it relevant. Also, we must make sure that the impact of Brexit on Ireland, in an era when we are dealing with a global pandemic, is also reflected in the European Recovery Fund. This is the major challenge specifically for the Minister of State, more so possibly than for the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach. It is to make sure that we can deliver and that the Irish voice is heard on how acutely impacted we will be, regardless of what happens in the negotiation. There is no such thing as a good Brexit for Ireland or Europe and certainly not for the United Kingdom.

See this speech in context